


A Box of Polaroids and You

by Liberte_Egalite_Broadway



Category: Mabel (Podcast)
Genre: Creepy, Dialogue-Only, F/F, Haunted Houses, I am so woefully behind on this show, Past, Phone Calls & Telephones, Photographs, Podcast WLW Week, but here goes, probably AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 00:46:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18435548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liberte_Egalite_Broadway/pseuds/Liberte_Egalite_Broadway
Summary: "Hey, sorry to bother you again. I shouldn't bother you again."It's just... these pictures?Mabel, they don't make sense.Mabel, I'm scared for you."





	A Box of Polaroids and You

**Author's Note:**

> I will preface this by saying that I am way back in Season Two, so all of this is probably way out of canon, but it's just some of my speculation. Hopefully someone will enjoy this fic? 
> 
> This story is set in Season One
> 
> (Mostly an excuse for me to try a new writing style.)

_First Message_

"Hi, Ms. Martin, it's me again. Anna. Actually I don't really know why I'm calling, except... well, I've called you a few times over this past week, so I thought, one more won't hurt, right?

Oh, who am I kidding? I've called you a lot of times this week. I have called you until I filled up your inbox. Twice. 

So I'm calling again out of... instinct, I guess. 

You know what, this isn't really as big of a deal as I'm making it out to be. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have bothered you." 

[hangs up]

_Next Message_

"Hi again, it's Anna. I'm sorry for hanging up like that. I thought about not calling back, but... I really want to discuss this. 

So I was going through your attic today, right? Oh, maybe you haven't gotten my earlier messages - in case you didn't, I'm your grandmother's carer. No, you would know that by now. I'm really sorry. Anyway, I was going through your attic today. Sally wanted me to find her old knitting patterns. She wanted to pass them on to me, I think. I think she worries about me getting bored. It's kind of her, really.

But anyway, I looked in the box where she told me they might be. I thought it was the box. It was a small brown shoebox. But when I opened it, there were no knitting patterns, just a lot of small rectangular photographs. I realized they were Polaroids. I used to have a Polaroid camera, actually, when I was about the same age. The... same age as you in the pictures.

Mabel, there were so many pictures. 

And you... you're in all of them. I hope you don't think it's an invasion of privacy, but I... I looked through them. There's one of you in a party dress by a pinata. There's one of a deep forest with a black path of stones winding through it while you skip along. There are flowers and gardens and you holding bouquets. It was all beautiful.

But it all didn't feel beautiful when I looked at it. Something always seemed... wrong about each picture. Like there was a dark shape in the corner of this one, or too much light in that one or -

Oh, Sally's calling me."

[hangs up]

_Next Message_

"Hey, sorry to bother you again. I shouldn't bother you again.

"It's just... these pictures?

Mabel, they don't make sense.

Mabel, I'm scared for you."

[hangs up]

_Next Message_

"Seeing all of these felt somehow intimate. Like I was looking into parts of your life you hadn't necessarily invited me to see. I felt like I was invading, but my hands kept shifting through the pictures. In one you were a toddler, and then in the next you were a young woman. Snapshots. Moments. 

Mabel, you... you're really beautiful. 

There's one picture of you standing by sunflowers. You're smiling with your eyes closed. Black sunglasses are propped on top of your head, or maybe they're navy blue? When I looked at the picture, I thought it was sunny. But then when I looked back at it it seemed cloudy. And then next, the sky was dark. I wasn't sure if it was the picture that changed or my perception of it.

Mabel, I feel like I'm seeing part of who you are. 

But now that I've seen it, I don't know what to think." 

[hangs up]

_Next Message_

"I want to talk to you. Please call me back.

For real this time." 

[hangs up]

_End of messages._

**Author's Note:**

> This work is a part of WLW week, a podcast collection focusing on fics about wlw. There are still two days to post!


End file.
